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Many of the cases will hinge on the allegation women were forced to sign documents allowing adoption within three days of giving birth, without knowing that was in contravention of the laws at the time. Others will note that the fathers, it is alleged, were never contacted to give consent. Women reported that church officials shouted at them in the delivery room while they were still drugged that social services would sue them if they didn't give the child up, Merchant said.

That was a demonstration of their immense power over people. The Cath clergy ruled schools and hospitals (the weakest humans, go figure) like Talibans. But I remember my parents talking about these adoption practices at the time in no uncertain terms. The cup was full and it was precisely in the early sixties that our Révolution Tranquille began.

As you mention, this was done in other countries as well, such as Spain and Australia; if my memory serves me right, in Ireland, too. Forcing or coercing a mother to give up her baby is abominable. And it's also a consequence of not having legal or easy-access abortions early in the pregnancy; this way, whoever feels that they cannot raise the child, they can have an abortion, and whoever wants to have the child, should keep her baby and feel no shame of having a "bastard" (what an endearing term, huh?). Instead, religion has always pushed this image of the women as a baby factory.